Andy Warhol, Northwest Coast Mask, 1986 from Cowboys and Indians, Unique Trial Proof 1986 is Warhol’s take on the ceremonial mask from the native cultures of the Northwest Coast. Warhol chose to keep the colors in this work true to the colors commonly used in these masks, blue and red in particular. The use of a contrasting purple and gold creates a sense of three-dimensionality, drawing out the facial features of the mask.

If Cowboys and Indians can be considered Warhol’s explorations of the reality and fiction of the American West, his inclusion of Northwest Coast Mask shows an awareness of the reality of Native American culture. The tradition of ceremonial masks in the Northwest Coast culture area, stretching along the Pacific Coast north of California, has existed for several thousand years. Andy Warhol’s Northwest Coast Mask is seen in relation to works such as Kachina Dolls and Plains Indian Shield. All of these objects could be seen to represent a Native American reality, but each is representative of a different Native American culture. By including them all in the same series, Warhol calls into question the monolithic identity given to the diversity of Native Americans in romanticized notions of the American West.

Created in 1986, Andy Warhol’s Northwest Coast Mask, 1986 from Cowboys and Indians, Unique Trial Proof 1986 is a color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board and is hand signed in the lower right corner in pencil. Numbered from the edition of 36 trial proofs, aside from the numbered edition of 250, published by Gaultney, Klineman Art Inc., New York and printed by Rupert Jason Smith, New York.

This screenprint is part of a portfolio of works Warhol created in 1986 titled Cowboys and Indians. Other works in the Cowboys and Indians Series include General Custer, Sitting Bull, Kachina Dolls, Geronimo, Annie Oakley, War Bonnet Indian, Buffalo Nickel, Action Picture, Plains Indians Shield, Mother and Child, Indian Head Nickel, Teddy Roosevelt, and John Wayne.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Andy Warhol, Northwest Coast Mask, from the Cowboys and Indians Series, 1986 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Feldman, Frayda and Jörg Schellmann. Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 – 1987, 4^th Ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2003.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, artist name title, year is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.